By Progress Oluranti, JKNewsMedia Reporter
RECOGNITION, COMPENSATION and reconciliation have been sought from the Federal Government by the family of the late Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military Head of State, six decades after his death.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that the demand was made this week as Nigerians marked another anniversary of the January 1966 coup and its violent aftermath.
Born in Umuahia in 1924, Aguiyi Ironsi rose through the ranks to become Nigeria’s first indigenous General Officer Commanding the Army in 1965.
Following the January 15, 1966, coup by a group of young majors that killed Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, several northern and western leaders and senior military officers, Aguiyi Ironsi took over government on January 16, 1966,, as the most senior military officer, with a promise to restore order and unity.
His six-month administration focused on centralising government, fighting corruption and preserving Nigeria’s unity.
His Unification Decree No. 34, which abolished federalism, became one of the country’s most controversial policies.
On July 29, 1966, a counter coup led mainly by northern officers erupted while Aguiyi Ironsi was on a state visit to Ibadan.
Mutinous soldiers arrested him and his host, Western Region Military Governor Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, at Government House before taking them to a forest outside the city where they were killed. Fajuyi chose to remain with his guest.
The family said the state has never officially acknowledged the killing of a sitting Head of State or offered closure.
Speaking on behalf of the family in an unsigned statement, his descendants called for a formal apology from the Federal Government, compensation for the family and national reconciliation with proper recognition of his sacrifice for Nigeria’s unity.
The family also argued that while Nigeria has honoured other past leaders, Aguiyi Ironsi’s memory has been “politically buried” for 60 years.
In its appeal, the family said: “Let the Federal Government acknowledge the wrong, so that healing can begin.”
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